Valle Canyon Hike among other things

Little update on this roller coaster we call life... :)

Let's see...Friday we hit the slopes (think I already blogged about that...don't worry won't bore you with the details all over again) and had a good ol' time.

Saturday Jack and I...hmm, I can not for the life of me remember what we did on Saturday! Must have been uber exciting, let me tell you. (after a good 10 minutes of not thinking about it, I've come back because I remember it!) Jack and I headed out for a quick run, it was tough. Of course. Then after that...I draw a blank, again. Maybe by the end of the post I'll remember.

Sunday we headed up to Los Alamos for church and enjoyed yet another excellent sermon by Pastor Mark on Matthew 17:14-23 "Faith as a Mustard Seed" which was so spot on exactly what the Lord wanted us to hear because He knew we would be putting what we learned to the test in a matter of days! After church we headed over to our friends' house in order to catch some of the NFL play-off games. What a blast they are to hang out with! We played a fun game that Jeremy named Woobles (because it's a wooden, marble game) that is similar to the game Sorry. After spending a few hours there Jack and I headed back to Santa Fe to finally hang some pictures around our apartment! Dixon came over to hang out for a bit so we watched some sports while Jack used his new little WeberQ. The chicken turned out grrrreat!

Above the fireplace.

Above the light switches.

Above the buffet.

Above the reading nook.

 Jack did a great job :) with me being the badgering wife saying up a little, to the left, to the left, to the right, to the right, now dip...ahem. Anyways, we had a good time and now our house feels more homey to me without all the blank walls, woohoo!

Monday morning Jack had the day off for MLK so we headed back up to Los Alamos to meet up with Jeremy and Kimi to try out a hike in the area. We got this sweet hike book from my awesome sister-in-law so Kimi and I chose which hike we thought would be the most fun. We arrived (after missing the turn and having to u-turn) and hopped out to start off on our adventure. The book said the hike was an out and back 5.6 mile trek. We made it 3 miles in and never saw the end so we decided to stop right there, eat our lunch and head back down the trail. The trail was snow covered and we climbed about 1400 feet so it was no easy walk in the park. We were a bit cold and tired by the end (none of us are quite adjusted to the altitude quite yet) and we headed back to J&K's for some hanging out before small group.

All smiles at the start of the hike!

Snow covered trail.

Which way do we go?

Trudging through!

Umm, did we take a wrong turn? Analyzing the book for directions.

Jeremy's ears got cold, good thing I packed my fuzzy hat!!

Almost lunch time! It was so nice in the sun.

The never ending trail. :)

After hanging out for a bit Jack and I received some pretty tough news. So thankful for Kimi and Jeremy and the fast and strong friendship that has been forged all ready with them. They were so great with us, letting us talk through the news we heard, prayed with us and were gracious supporters of us! We hung out with them and then we all headed to small group. What a great small group it was!! The one we visited before our Christmas break "multiplied" because it had gotten so large so Monday night was our first night as a "new" group together. It was instant comfort that I felt walking in there. So thankful! We were discussing the first chapter of the book called "Why Small Group" which talks about the necessity, importance, and structure of what small group is really all about. I felt like it was a great thing to be discussing for our first meeting of the year to make sure we are all on the same track about why we are meeting together. Thankful that God has so quickly helped Jack and me get plugged into a small group, make new friends and even provide accountability and discipleship partners for us!  It is wonderful being part of a small church but I'm also thankful that this church has a wide range of age groups which helps when you are looking for sound, Biblical, wise advise.

Yesterday Jack and I were able to spend some time praying together which was good. Also, we've been praying (and so have many faithful friends, thank you!) for me to get a job. Last night I received a call from the HR at the local hospital in LA wanting to talk about my interest in the job I applied for. She will be passing my information on to the managers who have positions to fill so that in itself was an answer to prayer! Now we will continue to pray that the right manager wants to hire me and that the Lord would be preparing my co-workers for us to work together! Thankful :) Later that night we wanted to relax so we plopped on the couch with a nice oven baked pizza and watched the first movie of Lord of the Rings. It was just what we needed at the time...too bad by the time we got tired and were ready for bed we still had an hour to go in the movie! Guess we'll have to finish that later. Taking each day as they come for we know that each day has enough trouble for itself, trying not to worry about the future or let the past haunt us.